Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Early 15th century
The Hussite Wars - pitting radical reformers against Catholics and, ultimately, different Hussite fac-
tions against each other - rage throughout Bohemia.
1583
Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II moves the dynasty's seat from Vienna to Prague, heralding a second
golden age. It lasts for three decades, when Protestant/Catholic tensions boil over.
21 June 1621
Twenty-seven Czech noblemen are executed in Old Town Square for their part in instigating the anti-
Habsburg revolt. Their severed heads are hung from the Old Town Tower on Charles Bridge.
29 October 1787
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, already more popular in Prague than in Vienna, conducts the premiere
of his opera Don Giovanni,staged at the Estates Theatre near Old Town Square.
3 July 1883
German-Jewish writer Franz Kafka is born near Old Town Square. He'll lead a double life: mild-
mannered insurance clerk by day, harried father of the modern novel by night.
28 October 1918
A newly independent Czechoslovakia is proclaimed at the Municipal House (Obecní dům) in the final
days of WWI. Crowds throng Wenceslas Square in jubilation.
30 September 1938
European powers agree to Hitler's demand to annex Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland region. British
PM Neville Chamberlain declares they have achieved 'peace in our time'.
15 March 1939
German soldiers cross the Czechoslovak frontier and occupy Bohemia and Moravia. Czechoslovak
soldiers, ordered in advance not to resist, allow the Germans to enter without firing a shot.
27 May 1942
Czechoslovak patriots assassinate German Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and are later found
hiding in a Nové Město church. Trapped by Nazi soldiers, some suicide; others are killed.
